Shopping online is fast becoming the main shopping choice for
many people and especially during the holidays People prefer
online stores for their shopping needs over the brick-and-mortar
stores for a variety of reasons. Most love discounted prices,
quick price comparisons, unavailability of desired items in the
retail stores, 24 hours shopping convenience, etc. Whatever the
reason is, before you jump into the shopping online bandwagon,
you must consider a few things to avoid frustration and monetary
loss.

Ask your friends about their experiences with shopping online
sites to select sites that are worthy of your hard earned money.
Another approach is to use a search engine like Google, Yahoo or
MSN to search for items you plan to purchase. When you use these
search engines to search for an item, you will get advertised
and non-advertised sites offering your items at different
prices. Check out a few sites before you decide to make a
purchase.

Many sites like Bizrate.com or Epinions.com offers price
comparisons, reviews, and shopping site ratings. Use these sites
to read reviews and to do price comparisons. Sites like
techbargains.com publishes information on latest bargains,
coupons, and discounts offered by various shopping online sites.
Monitoring this type of sites provides opportunities to get
great bargains.

If you have to shop with an unknown online merchant, check for
their telephone number at their Web site. Contact someone at the
merchant's physical location and talk to them. Ask them about
their privacy and refund policy. If you cannot find a phone
number or the phone number goes to a voice mail, instead to a
live person, go shopping somewhere else. There are dozens, if
not hundreds, good online merchants for any items you want to
buy.

Be cautious before you pull out your credit card to buy an item
at an unbelievably reduced price, think about the reasons why
the merchant is throwing out his profits. Maybe it is a total
scam and they want your credit card number to rip you off. Stay
with the big shopping online sites. Sites that are publicly
traded or reputable private companies do not spam your email
inbox with unsolicited advertisements. If you find a shopping
site, advertised in a spam e-mail, that sells $100 software for
$10, you can bet that it is a scammer's site.

At the online checkout cart, you have to use a credit card to
pay. When you use your credit card, make sure that your credit
card and personal information are sent using encryption to avoid
someone intercepting your information for unauthorized use. To
check for encryption, look for https in the URL. It is perfectly
safe if the site has http in its URL for all pages except the
order page - the page where you enter your credit card and other
personal information like address, etc. Even if a site is
encrypted, it can still be a scammer's site. Look out for
tale-tell signs like numbers at the beginning of the URL. Avoid
public computers at cafes, airports, etc. for your purchases.
The danger is that hackers can install key-loggers to log your
key presses before they are encrypted.

Always use a credit card to pay for your online purchases. Most
credit cards have online purchase protection. If something goes
wrong, you can always call your credit card company and dispute
the charge. You do not have to pay for your disputed charges
till the dispute is resolved. Federal laws limit your liability
to $50 in charges should someone uses your card fraudulently.
Never use a debit card. Debit cards pull money from your bank
account as soon as the transaction is made. If you are ripped
off, it may take months before you get your money back, if you
ever see it again.

Regardless of all the cautionary warnings, shopping online is
safer than shopping normal. You do not have to take a shower,
dress up, drive and mingle with other shoppers and touch
anything in the store for shopping online. How safe can it be?
If you are careful, you can guard yourself against identity and
credit card thefts by following safety tips discussed above.
When you are using a credit card in an normal venue, there is a
person, such as the sales person, who processes the transaction
and this person can also see your private information. In online
transactions, the middleman is eliminated. If you do your
research, watch for signs of fraud and only use credit cards for
your purchases, shopping online provides more benefits over
normal shopping.